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The Rebel & The King

Elvis Presley had just exploded on the American scene and was filming his first movie, Love Me Tender, when he introduced himself to Nick Adams on the backlot of 20th Century Fox. Nick was a struggling actor, part of the Rebel Without A Cause gang and showed Elvis the town, introducing him to Natalie Wood.

Nick was infamous for writing about his famous friends and now the POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATION of Nick Adams raw, unedited manuscript, The Rebel & The King, details his close friendship and whirlwind eight days in Memphis during the famous singer’s Tupelo Homecoming the summer of 56.

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I found this book just as Allyson Adams represents it - before the loss of innocence. It also shows the human side of not only Elvis but also Nick. I enjoy watching "The Rebel" every week and this manuscript gives insight into Nick Adams as well. I believe that Nick wrote this in essence to defend his friend from the media and the bad publicity he was getting. Unfortunately, it is only about 8 days he spent with Elvis because I am sure Nick had more stories since they remained friends. But I am glad Allyson found it and printed it so we can have a glimpse of both Elvis and her father. I enjoyed it and am proud to have it in my Elvis library.

If you google Elvis and Nick Adams you'll find a whole lot of pictures of those two together, so they must have been good friends back then. This is one of few Elvis-books that is NOT a hear-say book. Here you read something written by the guy who was actually there, and I'm sure it has some great stories.

My father passed away in 1968 and I found The Rebel & The King in my Daddy Box of memorabilia forty years later. It's taken me 4 years to publish it and the original manuscript is included along with an edited version with photos provided by Graceland. The book is the last glimpse of innocence before the end of an era straight from the horses mouth as if Elvis and Nick are speaking from the grave. So far fans are really enjoying it and happy that I published it.

I always liked The Rebel TV show, and I likewise thought Nick Adams was an underated actor. I didn't learn of his close friendship with Elvis until long after Adams died. I knew Adams wrote an article about his friendship with Elvis for a late 50's movie magazine , but was unaware that he was working on a manuscript that could be turned into a book. Adams is dead quite a while , so this took a long time to come out. However this looks interesting and I'll be buying it to read a firsthand report of this friendship . Not too many books like this, from people who were there back in the 50's, and saw things from both sides.